Better Than This
by sandstorm7
Summary: "I'll say it again: I needed to understand what true suffering was, so that I could learn to become more compassionate to others. Even to people like Kuvira." "Yes, but, what about the ones that REJECT that compassion?" "Well...they're the ones that need it most." (Post-Book 5: Redemption)


"I just... _why_?" Korra asked despondently, sitting cross-legged. "Why _you_? Why are you the _only_ one that doesn't want to change?"

Inside the Tree of Time, behind a barrier of pure energy, Vaatu resided, dark and dormant, a fraction of what he used to be on the day of Harmonic Convergence. But within him, resided the person Korra was truly pleading with:

"Uncle, _please_... _answer_ me."

Korra felt Unalaq's spirit clear as day within Vaatu, but his emotional aura was less than receptive. But that didn't stop Korra from trying...

 _Every time_ she entered the Spirit World...

This was her umpteenth visit to the Tree of Time, to try and reason with her uncle to let go of the spirit of all darkness and chaos. Everyone was careful not to tell her to "give up" on him exactly, but perhaps to...take a break for a while. Korra would've agreed, but...

She twiddled her pant leg inbetween her index finger and thumb in thought for a moment, her voice soft. "Kuvira, Noatak, even Zaheer all came around, but you're still so...stubborn. Don't you even want to _try_? Has Vaatu _really_ corrupted you that much? Or were you...corrupt from the start..."

Silence from the inside.

"No," Korra denounced herself with closed eyes, shaking her head. "You're not corrupt, just lost. You had a hard past, and that's made you hard now. There just...has to be a way to help you _realize_ that. I don't _want_ you to _stay_ like this..."

Korra opened her eyes, and looked back up, through the energy barrier at Vaatu. Her brow creased in sadness. Nothing had seemed to change, nothing was different. She only felt Unalaq's spirit emanating out from within Vaatu's form, _mocking_ her, just like every time before...

Korra smiled.

" _Gotcha_ ," she said, satisfied that her little plan worked.

She suddenly leapt to her feet, and her eyes flashed white. She reached out with both arms towards the Tree, pulling with all her might at Unalaq's exposed spirit. This was her chance.

After a few seconds, Unalaq's scream was audible to both spiritual and physical ears alike, he himself now protruding from the wall of energy barring Vaatu from escaping the Tree when he awoke in another millennium. Korra clenched her teeth, starting to yell in pain herself. The sheer _force_ of rending someone through the Tree of Time, from _Vaatu_ , was just as stifling as she remembered it. But, she held on to her uncle's spirit, and never let go.

Soon, after one final pull, she and Unalaq flew backwards with a blast of force, away from the Tree of Time. They hit the slope leading up to it, hard, and tumbled down below.

Korra and Unalaq both hit the ground with a grunt, Raava's light leaving the Avatar's eyes. After a moment of wincing, Korra rolled over, sitting up and holding her head. Not majorly injured, she looked over at Unalaq, still laying on the ground on his chest. He was disheveled as well, missing his shoulder-cloak, with a light blue incorporeal haze around him, a bit like how her past lives appeared to her when she meditated. His _spirit_.

Korra started to laugh in awe. She had _saved_ his _spirit_. His body had unfortunately been decimated when she purified him and Vaatu after they'd fused, but...his consciousness was still fully intact. _He_ was still there.

 _Finally... After all these years..._

Korra moved to wake him, almost starting to tear up. "U-Uncle," she said gently, reaching for his shoulder, "are... Are you okay?"

Unalaq groaned and winced, clenching his fists as he pushed himself up on his forearms. He shook his head and blinked hard. Once on his knees with Korra, he looked at his hands, noticing they were blue and see-through. He gasped, his voice having a slight echo to it. His head whirled to the Tree of Time.

Korra looked from him to the Tree as well. She smiled. "Yep. You were trapped in there, in Vaatu. But I pulled you out. You're _free_ now." She looked at him. "How do you feel?"

Unalaq screamed in terror.

"NOO!" he said, startling Korra, scrambling to his feet and stumbling away. "Put me _baaack_!" He was running back towards the slope of the Tree, back towards...

Back towards Vaatu.

 _Oh no._

"Wait!" Korra called to him. She grunted in frustration, pushing herself up and running after him. "Uncle, _wait_!"

Unalaq climbed fast, scrambling like a mad dog, baring his teeth and seething with desperation. Korra air-blasted the ground underneath herself, propelling herself up to her uncle in seconds. She landed inbetween him and the barrier. As he got to the top, she stretched out her arms.

"Uncle, listen to me—"

"MOVE!" he demanded, trying to push her away, but only phasing through her. He barely seemed to notice, just deciding to push his form through her instead, to her momentary surprise.

Unalaq collided with the barrier, but did not enter.

"NO!" he yelled in vain. Thinking wildly, he started banging his fists against the wall of energy, only creating little ripples in it. "No, _no_ , _NO_! Put me back! Put me _BACK_! Put me... Just put me _back_..." He almost sounded like he was about to weep as he leaned against the barrier.

Korra patted her chest delicately, making sure she was still all corporeal unlike her uncle. Feeling whole, she stepped and turned around, looking at him. She creased her brow. The sight of her uncle so broken...saddened her. "I've missed you," she said gently, trying to get his attention.

Unalaq's eyes slowly crawled up to Vaatu's form within the Tree. He turned around to his niece, scowling bitterly, bearing none of the commanding posture expected from the ex-chief of the Northern Water Tribe. " _You_ ," he sneered, his usual dry elegant voice now wrought with rage. "You... This is all _your_ fault."

"Yeah," Korra said, putting her hands on her hips. "It is. You're welcome."

"I didn't _want_ this!" Unalaq yelled, slicing his hand through the air in anger. "You...! Why couldn't you just let me be?! Why wouldn't you just let me _die_?!"

His words cut deep into Korra, but she stayed adamant. "Now what would anyone possibly gain from that?"

Unalaq growled, whirling and slamming on the barrier ineffectually. " _Fool_. You don't know what you've done..."

"I do," Korra said poignantly, walking up to him. "You may not like this right now, but I _know_ that this was the right move. If I had known you were still inside Vaatu, I would've done this _years_ ago. If you hadn't been stuck so deep inside him all this time, I would've been able to pull you out _sooner_. I..." Her reasoning felt so childish, but it was true. "I've wanted to _talk_ with you..."

Unalaq scowled, his fingers scraping the barrier. "Maybe I _liked_ being one with Vaatu..."

"How?" Korra asked, moving to put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but realizing she would've only just phased through him again. " _Why_?"

Unalaq hesitated, then turned around fully, studying his niece's face for a moment. She wanted to say he had a glint of pride in his shaking eyes, but if he did, it was almost completely overshadowed by sad frustration. "He... He's the only one who _understood_ me."

" _I can too_ if you'd just let me," Korra gently insisted with a hand on her chest, stepping closer. "Please. Being a part of so much chaos for so long, it... It can't have been good for you."

Unalaq frowned, and looked at Korra with an upturned chin. "...It was fate, wasn't it?" he asked calmly, prying. "For you to use my own technique to kill me? For you to kill your _own_ _uncle_."

"I-I didn't _kill_ you," Korra pleaded.

"Then where is my body?!" Unalaq demanded.

Korra opened her mouth to answer, but faltered. It hit her, deep and disturbing. "I... You're _right_ ," she said, head and shoulders falling. "I _killed_ you..."

Unalaq grinned and chuckled. "There... You finally see the darkness in yourself. We all have a little bit, you know. Own up to your misdeeds, my niece. _Embrace_ it."

"N-No!" Korra said, disturbed, stepping back with a warily outstretched arm. "I-I didn't _want_ to try to kill you either! I hoped that it would only separate you from Vaatu, save your spirit at least, put you back in the Spirit World. But..." She looked down. "But you already gave yourself up to him. You were fused. I was too late..."

Unalaq's grin vanished into a frown, and he started pacing. "That's the tragedy of having all your power, isn't it? You can't save _everyone_."

Korra hesitated then slowly looked up, trying to gain back confidence. "Tell that to Kuvira, Noatak, Lee, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and Zaheer."

"And P'Li?" Unalaq asked quizzically with outstretched arms. " _Tarrlok_?"

Korra faltered. She looked away, grimacing in pain.

"That's the truth of the world, Korra," Unalaq said casually, putting his arms behind his back. "You can literally _bend_ the very _fiber_ of the world to your will, but no matter what you do, no matter what you try, people _will_ die, in _pain_ , take the things you want most away from you, and you can't stop it."

"Not always," Korra tried to refute.

"True," Unalaq admitted with a cock of his head. "But then again, you merely got lucky with my old friends from the Red Lotus. If you hadn't meddled with them as much as you did? Why they'd be lost forever...like P'Li."

Korra shook her head slowly, feeling worn. "Are you _happy_ she's gone?"

Unalaq snorted, strolling away from his niece. "I don't take 'pleasure' in pain exactly, but, it is... _very_ intriguing to watch its ramifications in action, how it changes the world. Losing her _is_ the only reason Zaheer is capable of flight now, after all. His _tether_."

"It only breaks the world," Korra denounced. "Hurts it. Pain never does anything beneficial."

"Says the _strongest_ Avatar in all of recorded history," Unalaq said with a smirk, proud again. "Truly, Korra. Everyone agrees. Even Vaatu. No one could become what you have without losing their bending, their past lives, _and_ their _sanity_. Power has a price, my niece. Isn't that along the lines of what you told Tenzin at the Varricks' wedding? How you were able to convince Kuvira to turn down so?"

Korra was looking at the ground for answers.

"Regardless," Unalaq said, rolling his neck, "that is why you and I are never going to become 'buddies' like all your other enemies, Korra. We have no shared desires, and no aligning interests. We're polar opposites." He chuckled. "Quite literally, in fact. All I know is pain and all _you_ know is...cheating out of it."

"Kuvira rotted in prison for _five years_ wanting to fix her mistakes," Korra said, fragile. "Noatak and Lee were lost and alone for _ten_ , waiting to _beg_ to be forgiven. They all went through _plenty_ to deserve a little happiness. I never cheated anyone out of anything." She looked down, saddened. "I just wish I could've found a way to save you from always getting bested by dad though..."

Unalaq's eyes widened. "Don't you _dare_ speak of my past."

Korra grinned a bit as she defensively held her hands up. _Yes, there._ "This is what I do," she explained calmly and gently. "I find the root of what made a person want to act so cruelly, and then we face up to it, together. Fix it."

"Tonraq was a fool," Unalaq spat with a wave. " _I_ should've been chief. _I_ was able to commune with the spirits when _he_ only ever drove them away!"

"You felt overshadowed," Korra deduced. "So, to prove you were just as capable, you tried to reunite both the Water Tribes, along with the Spirit and physical worlds. It's impressive, actually, all that you did. It's a lot like what Kuvira did! She tried fixing Suyin's mistakes, but went too far."

Unalaq's eyes widened for a second, but they quickly narrowed as he smirked. "You must feel so smug, don't you? Finding just _all_ the right little threads to make me think I'm _just_ like all the others."

"Hey, you said it, not me," Korra said, smiling back.

Unalaq chuckled at her gumption. "Realizing I have a sob story isn't enough to make me want to give myself up to you, Korra."

"They're called ' _tragedies_ ' and of course not. But it's a good starting point."

"But _I'm_ not 'good.' "

"Me neither," Korra admitted sheepishly. "I'm surprised Raava even _picked_ me to be Avatar. I'm cocky as all get-out, always in over my head... I'm a terrible Avatar. She works in weird ways, y'know. Kuvira, Noatak, heck, even Zaheer all showed me things about myself I never even realized before. We all helped each other grow, made each other realize the best in ourselves, even though we tried to kill each other."

Unalaq grimaced. "But I don't want that..."

"And that makes me sad," Korra returned, genuinely bereaved.

They were both silent for a long moment.

"Then we are at an impasse," Unalaq stated.

"If you keep saying we are," Korra said.

Unalaq looked over his shoulder at Vaatu with a frown. He sighed. "We're polar opposites," he said again. "Neither of us wants what the other is selling. We're an unstoppable force and an immovable object. I'm afraid this little arrangement of yours will be...fruitless."

"I'd like to think otherwise," Korra said confidently, stepping. "I can't put you back in the Tree with Vaatu, so we're stuck with each other. We better make the most of it."

"Can't or _won't_?" Unalaq inquired.

Korra didn't answer that directly, only made a gesture with her arms. "Think of this as an intervention. I don't like blaming people, but since you helped take away my past lives, _you're_ gonna be my past life now. There really is a lot you can teach me."

"About _what_ possibly?"

Korra pursed her bottom lip and shrugged. "The spirits, how you and Dad grew up together, what being a part of Vaatu is like, how the Red Lotus came to be and operates, the differences between the Water Tribes, being a leader in general... All that stuff and more, I'm sure."

Unalaq grumbled, sitting down on a protruding root and looking back into the Tree. "You'd sooner get more wisdom from a stone..."

Korra sighed quietly out her nose, and turned to glance at the spirit portals. She had other business to attend to, and she'd already spent more time here than she thought she would. She'd stay longer, but she didn't want to keep Kuvira and Tenzin waiting.

"Well," she said, "sulk around Vaatu all you want, but I'll be waiting for you in the physical world once you're done. You can zip on back to me instantly anytime you want. We're linked now, after all, just you and me, whenever we wanna talk with each other. Vaatu's gone all dormant, so he's not gonna be as excited to see you as I am."

Unalaq stayed silent, and so Korra walked away. He didn't see it, but she was smiling the whole way as she walked down the slope of the Tree of Time and into one of the spirit portals.

Unalaq didn't keep track of how long he sat there in thought, staring at what remained of Vaatu, but eventually, he found his eyes falling downward. He slowly looked back up, over at the spirit portals...realizing.

He smiled.

"My niece," he said with respectful contempt, "you are just as loathsome as your father..."

* * *

 **NOTES:** Not entirely sure what sparked me to write this tbh. I just kinda realized that after having desperately seeking out any kind of closure for Kuvira, deciding to write a thing or two giving Noatak more of an ending than just an unprecedented murder-suicide, and what with Zaheer already looking past himself in-series, I figured I should complete the antagonist-square and have Korra tie some loose ends up with Unalaq, because he's a person with a tragic backstory too darnit fight me with your life. He really doesn't get enough credit tbh. Like he's literally Loki, mixed with those pompous Thalmor High Elves from Skyrim. How's that not enjoyable? The Dark Avatar thing was weird and unexpected at the time, but in retrospect it's more tragic that he got so far lost.

As with most my ideas these days, this is just a one-shot. I can't come up with any coherent ideas for future chapters -_-'' The only "plot" I could attempt is Korra revealing that she's bound her uncle's spirit to herself to everyone, and they'd all be shocked at first, but then they'd end up like, "nah it's cool, he's cool." Like there's no major crucible I can picture this all building towards, if you catch my drift, nothing specific I can see Unalaq helping Korra out with. If you truly want to see this continue in some fashion, perhaps hit me up with a suggestion, what you might've been expecting :)

Expect either an Overwatch thing or a Kuvira thing next. I'm working on both. Just depends which I finish first :)


End file.
